gingerman

Ross Bentley returns to the podcast to review the 2021 One Lap of America event that finished last week.  This was Ross’s first One Lap and he seemed to have a blast.  I think the hook has been set and Ross’s inherent competitiveness will likely lead to him trying to win it in the future.  We go into the event as a whole, its history, how the 2021 event went, and  every detail we could think of to scout for Bill’s eventual entry in a coming year.  It sounded like a great time and should probably be on almost every high performance driver’s bucket list.  Now which car should we enter, hmmmm.

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, Ben clarifies what people mean when they say the term “pedal fest”.  Bill first heard this related to drag racing.  Vicki had heard it but not a clue as to what it meant.  We also go into what the goal should be on track, the usual causes of the “fest” and ways to think about re-applying the throttle to minimize the issue.  Ben also demonstrates the sound that your car may have if this happens to you, lol.

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A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/RossBentleysOneLap

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS  Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  We have two systems for our team and Bill is looking to add a third for this season, pending CFO approval from Vicki.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  We start with a display of a bit of podcast time travel involving Ross’s appearances on our podcast.

2)  Ross summarizes how the original “Cannonball Run” event transformed into the current
One Lap of America” event and how it is structured.

3)  The event consisted of a scheduled ~20 events at various tack facilities across the country that change from year to year.  This year the total travel distance was almost 4,000 miles in the week, not counting any of driving within the events.

4)  Tracks consisted of:  Tire Racks’ Skid Pad, Grissom AFB for an autocross, Memphis International Raceway, Eagles Canyon, NOLA, Atlanta Motorsport Park, the Lanier Oval, Summit Point, and Gingerman.

5)  What to pack, what to bring, how to prep, car and tire selection, etc.  Yep, it's in there.

6)  Great stories abound about the cars, the drivers, the track events, the transits, and even some good hearted sponsor induced bounties for the event.

7)  We hope to have a few other teams on the podcast as well to discuss the event in coming episodes.

Bill Griffin has worked his way up to through the HPDE ranks to where he is a racing driver as well as an instructor, actually Jennifer's instructor from GingerMan a few weeks back.  We talk with him about his history and progression from having zero experience in performance driving to where he competes regularly with NASA and Grid Life as well as instructing when he can.  Bill grew up liking racing as many people who grew up near Indianapolis did and eventually began driving himself when his work and family life allowed, proving again that it is never too late to start to enjoy performance driving and even racing.  He is a very relaxed and knowledgeable driver and Jennifer loved having him as an instructor.  We cover how the NASA Great Lake GingerMan HPDE classes went without being able to have in car instruction and offer several options that may be ways to improve the teaching methods without right seat instruction as an option due to COVID 19.  The event was awesome, but as with everything else, you can always improve, in everything.  You can follow him on Instagram at Bill Griffin.

 

On one of our simplest episodes of Dominating with Dawson we review crabbing or cheating into a corner.

 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

 

Best regards,

 

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team

 

Highlights from the episode include:

1)  We cover Bill's progressions from newbie track driver and not terribly mechanical to a regular racing driver and instructor (who has been to the track 5 weeks straight and counting) (Very jealous)

2)  What is a competition (or race) license, as well as several methods and paths towards getting one.

3)  Bill seeks guidance to how to schedule a season of racing with the rest of our team.  Perhaps an appointment for hearing testing is in order.

4)  Bill also goes into a quick review of some of the exotic sports cars he gets to drive with Extreme Experience and their clients.  This is especially useful if you are taller, like Bill who is 6' 4".

5)  Bill (the other) also goes over the potential limits in size for a driver in a Mazda Miata MX-5.  We have seen one with a cage that fits the owner that was 6' 8" and swallowed Bill up quite easily.

6)  Bill even goes over why he chooses to remain instructing the HPDE 1 group of students.

7)  We cover how the NASA Great Lake GingerMan HPDE classes went without being able to have in car instructional and offer several options that may be ways to improve the teaching methods without right seat instruction as an option due to COVID 19.  The event was awesome, but as with everything else, you can always improve, in everything.

8)  Suggestions included 1) potentially using in car radios to communicate to the students, 2) lead follow groups of only two students, 3) only using partial lead follow (allowing students to assume lead position and instructor to follow), 4) perhaps grouping the instructors and cars to match performance, 5) using better/more universally defined hand signals, 6) more use of different cones for initial track learning, 7)  perhaps adopting an unofficial "HPDE 1.5" level/group within the HPDE 1 population, 8) incorporating the use of in car video, 9) positioning instructors with notebooks around the track to view at significant turns or areas of the track to provide feedback to the classroom or debrief sessions, 10) potential pathways to getting increased options for right seat/in car instruction.

9)  The tricks and differences in being an instructor in a lead follow environment versus being in the right seat and the potential for lead follow groups to become longer groups, which can make some of the instruction into a bad game of telephone.

10)  Riding a bike vs walking the track during a track walk.

11)  Several tips for new to track or high performance drivers.

12)  Bill unprompted supports Bill with the prep required before coming to the track as well as using 2-3 max goals and a few comments for each track session, especially during an HPDE event.  Now if we could only get the Wilson sisters to agree, lol.

13)  How your first few HPDE events can feel like your brain is drinking from a fire hose and how to potentially reduce this effect (like following the ideas from #12 above)

14)  Bill F. tries to sneak in a Good, The Bad, and the Ugly segment on how Jennifer did during here HPDE event.  Bill G. is much too nice to comply, but we will keep trying.

15)  How driving in a lead follow instruction environment make lengthening your vision particularly difficult.

16)  Tips for everyone (and us) on their next HPDE event.  Ours will be at Pitt Race in late July with NASA Great Lakes.

17)  The importance of focusing on consistently hitting your track marks and letting the speed build naturally.  Because it will.

18)  How teaching and instructing has helped Bill's racing and how Racing has helped him as an instructor.  Hopefully, it will help our Bill when he gets there, lol.

Jennifer, Vicki, and Bill are going to be attending the NASA Great Lakes HPDE at GingerMan, a new track for our team.  This is a short episode where we cover our preparation for the HPDE and our goals and areas of focus going into the HPDE event.  In addition, we cover coasting on a race track (Hint:  Don’t) and how to avoid it in this episode’s Dominating with Dawson segment. 

 

We hope you enjoy the episode!

 

Best regards,

 

Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast

and team members in the GHiT

Immature Endurance Racing Team

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